Disclaimer: not one character used here is mine.
Alone, and empty-handed, a young man is roaming the streets of Tokyo. He heaves a deep sigh.
"Of course," he mutters to himself. "The one day we go back to Earth, to stock up on supplies, and we happen to arrive when it's nighttime."
He turns his head to sky, as if knowing someone up there can hear him. "When all the stores are closed!"
Still, looking down the street, he notices something he never noticed before. With all the neon-signs, all the streetlights, and lights from rooms inside the buildings, there is so much light, one needs to look up to even realize it is nighttime. He never realized it before now.
"What spending time on other planets can do to you," he says to himself.
He would smile at the idea, but a noise keeps him from doing that. He cannot be sure, but it sounded like a growl.
A lion? Well, he thinks to himself, lions have not been that unusual in Tokyo. Particularly the giant types. But this one did sound a little different.
Following the sound, the young man moves to check it out.
He enters a small alley. In a shadow around the corner, he spots something moving.
"Zangyack?" he shouts at the shadow? "Or worse!"
A shrill scream fills the alley.
Eyes wide, the young man starts running.
Once around the corner, he gets a better look at what he saw earlier. His jaw drops at the sight of it.
Before him, is one citizen of Tokyo, whose head is held by a strange creature. It is a three-meter long thing, gray, has legs that has two knees each, has very long arms, only three fingers on each hand, but these three are long enough for his one hand to grab hold of its victim's head. And speaking of heads, the thing's own is elongated, as if it houses a large brain, and its face, though it looks human, has this constant sneer.
"Hey you!" the young man shouts at him. "Let him go!"
The thing turns to the young man, tosses his previous victim away, and focuses all his attention on the young man, who is laughing now.
"Good," he says. "Now, between you and me."
The young man takes a silver phone from his one pocket and a tiny figurine from his other. His phone flips open, revealing a hidden compartment.
"Gokai Cha..."
Before he can finish his cry, he feels his phone being knocked out of his hand.
The young man looks at his hand. Before he can see where his phone went, he sees a small, silver, reflective orb flying around him.
The sound of high heels clacking can be heard from behind him. He turns to look.
A young woman, long black hair, slender body, red shirt, black skirt and shoes, and Western, is approaching him.
A huge smile creeps on the woman's lips. The young man sees her lips move, hears her talk, but either he is too distracted by her appearance, or she speaks a language he does not know too well. Either way, he is looking at her, eyes wide and jaw dropped.
The woman's eyes turn to the thing behind the young man. He cannot be sure, but it sounds to him as though she calls him "Pumpkinhead".
A smack hits the young man, forcing him against the wall on his left.
He shakes his head, trying to recover, but that flying orb returns, accompanied by three more. Each of them has blades popping out of them, which they aim at the young man. Behind them, this Pumpkinhead thing is lurking, hissing.
The woman speaks. He recognizes the language as English, but he himself is not fluent enough to understand what she is saying.
He turns his head to look at her. She still has that smile on her face, as she raises her hand to his face.
His eyes fix on her hand, which is gently approaching his face, as if about to caress him.
The sound of roaring motorcycles distract the woman. She turns her head to look, and the young man follows her example.
Three motorcycles stop, and their riders dismount.
"Let him go!" one of the three, dressed in black, shouts at the woman and Pumpkinhead.
While the woman rolls her eyes, and mumbles something in her own language, the young man notices a wristband on the black-dressed man's wrist. It has a triangular-shaped device attached to it, which bears a bird-shaped symbol.
"You're with Jetman!" the young man shouts.
All he gets as an acknowledgment, is a smile from the black-dressed man.
"But that must mean..." he looks at the other two.
One of them is a man who wears a green shirt, who rode a green motorcyle, that has antlers on top of its steering wheel. The other is a woman, who wears a blue coat, and riding a white-and blue motorcycle, which bears a drawing of a dolphin.
The blue-coated woman shouts something in English to the red-shirted woman, who replies in a low voice.
This, the young man takes as an opportunity. He ducks, so to stay out of the woman and Pumpkinhead's sight, and moves away, while scanning the ground for his phone.
The red-shirted woman shouts something, and in the corner of his eyes, the young man notices something moving.
He turns his head to take a better look. From nowhere, dwarf-sized people, wearing dark robes, start running toward the other three.
"Hey! Didn't I see those on that sand planet?" the young man quips.
The dwarfs attack the three people who came to the young man's rescue. One jumps the black-dressed man, but one punch from him is enough to get rid of that one.
Another dwarf charges at the blue-coated woman, who kicks it in the face.
Yet another dwarf charges at the green-shirted man, who uses both his flat hands to chop at the dwarf's neck, rendering it incapacitated.
The young man shrugs. These three can help themselves, he would better continue looking for his phone.
A rattling gun sounds through the area. The young man looks up again.
An oddly shaped man, that has lights for eyes, motorcycles handles at each side of his head, and carrying a wheel-shaped gun, is firing at the dwarfs. With every move he makes, a whirring sound can be heard, as if this man is a machine. He must be a robot. While he is shooting, something is moving at lightspeed velocity through the area.
"Looking for this?" the young man hears someone ask him.
As a response, he turns his head to his right. There he finds a woman, in yellow uniform, holding up his phone.
Instead of answering the question, the young man shouts his excitement. "You're Dekayellow!"
"Reimon Marika," the woman replies. "Or..."
"Jasmine, right?" the young man interrupts. "I know all about you and S.P.D. Are you still..."
This time it is the woman, Jasmine's, turn to interrupt. "Ikari Gai? Also known as Gokaisilver?"
The young man, Gai, stands as erect as he can, and salutes her, his hand shivering as he talks.
"At your service."
As he talks, he hears a few more grunts from his left.
The others beat the last one of the dwarfs. The one who was running at incredible speed, who is now standing still, and wearing a black-and-red uniform, talks to the red-shirted woman.
The woman replies, upon which Pumpkinhead grabs hold of her, picks her up, and jumps away.
The seven of them run instinctively, but stop as soon as they realize it is futile.
"Now what do we do?" the green-shirted man asks.
"Nothing, Daigo," Jasmine replies. "She fits the description of the one called Tamara Riley. If so, she is someone for the Magirangers to deal with."
Gai almost squeals in excitement upon hearing that the Magirangers are involved. Almost, because hearing that they are involved, and seeing these people, each of which being from a different team, judging from their wrist-devices, motorcycles and uniforms, he realizes only one thing.
"The Legendary Wars are happening again?"
"That was seven years ago," the blue-coated woman replies. "This is something else."
"Never mind that, Megumi," Jasmine stops her from going any further. "I'll explain everything to him on the way."
Gai frowns. "On the way where?"
"Hopefully, the source of it all," the red-uniformed man answers, then turns to the robotic man. "Nick, better change back."
"Sure thing, Hiromu," the robot, Nick replies.
Within a blink of an eye, Nick changes into a motorcycle, which the man now identified as Hiromu mounts.
"You," Jasmine talks to Gai. "Follow me."
Wanting to know what is going on, he follows Jasmine. In so doing, he arrives at her police car.
Jasmine opens the door on the right side, where the steering wheel is, and Gai opens the door on the other side. Both enter, but Jasmine was a little too fast for Gai, as he can feel the soles of his feet scrape against the asphalt of the street, as she has already begun driving.
From his seat, Gai looks behind him.
He can see the remaining four mounting their motorcycles, and follow after Jasmine.
"What is going, here?"
Jasmine shrugs. "Nobody knows for sure."
Turning his head to Jasmine, askance, Gai needs not say anything for her to know what he wants to ask.
"A little while back, several bodies started piling up," Jasmine explains. "There are those of people who were attacked by a hook, and are always found in a room that has a mirror. There are entire families that are killed, but their youngest child has disappeared. People have claimed to have seen humanoid fish leaving the rivers, and going after everyone who's near the water. Then there's that tall thing you just saw, who also leaves its own trail of bodies. And trust me, these are not the weirdest crime scenes."
Gai is at a loss for words hearing all this. But Jasmine is not done.
"Initially, it was believed that Alienizers were behind these. Which is why we were contacted. But as we looked deeper into this, we noticed that even some of the more normal homicides were odd. DNA, fingerprints and other pieces of evidence, have all pointed to dead people being behind these murders. Mary Mason, John Kramer, Norman Bates..."
Jasmine stops listing off the names, as she notices a frown on Gai's face.
A sigh escapes Jasmine's lips. Of course, he would not know about killers from the other side of the globe. She herself had never even heard of these people until recently.
"What I'm trying to say," Jasmine continues, "is that somebody has unleashed all sorts of horrors into the city."
"Horrors?" Gai face almost lights up. "You mean like the things that the Golden Knight fights?"
Jasmine turns her head to Gai, frowning.
"You know," he elaborates. "Garo? Never heard of him? They say the Shinkengers use the same symbol powers as he does. Surely, you must have heard of him!"
Jasmine's eyes return to the road. "Anyway, we have determined that all these attacks seem to originate from Nerima. So that is where we're headed."
"Aren't the others going to fight with us?"
Jasmine shakes her head. "My co-workers are too busy responding to calls about attacks. The Ohrangers, Gorangers and Changemen are too busy evacuating people. The Magirangers, Goseigers and Zyurangers are occupied with figuring out the magic that seems to drive these people... everyone is too busy doing something. Even with the people we had to bring back from the dead, we're still short-handed."
"Huh?" Gai is not sure he heard her right. "Did you just say you brought people back from the dead?"
Jasmine shrugs. "Like I said, we found evidence of dead people being behind these attacks. Thanks to our Europe Precinct, we became aware of a child who can bring the dead back. Thus proving to us that the dead can indeed rise. We used the same kid to bring back some of our fallen comrades. But it may not be enough."
Gai laughs. "Since when has that ever stopped any of us?"
Jasmine smiles. "Who said anything about stopping?"
They both smile at this.
"I'd better call the Captain," Gai says. "We could use his help as well."
Jasmine nods. And with some optimism, whether justified or not, the two continue their ride, along with the four others that are not too far behind.
After a long drive (one that was hindered by the fact that Gai claimed to see a clown every five seconds), the six of them arrive at the aforementioned house in Nerima. There, the motorcyclist dismount their bikes, while Jasmine and Gai get out of the car.
"Nick, you better stay here, on watch," Hiromu says to his motorcycle, who changes back into his humanoid form.
"Why do I have to stay here? What if you need help?"
Hiromu does not change his expression. "You are helping me. By keeping other dangers outside."
"Ah!" Nick finds some new enthusiasm. "That, I can do."
"Is this the place?" Daigo asks.
"That's what our analysts say," Jasmine replies.
Gai looks at the sign at fence gate, which reads "Saeki". His eyes widen in horror.
"Saeki!" he exclaims. "You're serious?"
The black-dressed man laughs. "Why? What's the significance of this place?"
"It's the most haunted mansion in all of Japan!" Gai shouts. "They say Onryo live in there."
Megumi laughs. "Onryo are nothing but superstition."
"So are dead people coming walking," Jasmine tells here.
"They say that this one is pretty bad," Gai continues. "It somehow even found its way into America."
Jasmine curls her lips. "That would explain why most of the people we encounter here are Occidental."
"It does?" the black-dressed man wonders. "Not to me, it doesn't."
"It sounds very simple to me," Hiromu replies. "If this curse can somehow find its way to America, it can come back the same way. And bring some friends along."
Gai's phone rings. He takes it out of his pocket, and answers. "Silver, here."
Upon recognizing his Captain's voice, Gai turns on the speaker, so everyone else can listen in.
"Some thing else just arrived at the coast," the Captain says. "It's a... I don't know what it is. It looks like a dragon, but walks on its hind legs, and has an octopus for a head."
Jasmine frowns at the sound of that. "Is he describing a Trao?"
Everyone else fixes their eyes on her, but the Captain continues, as if he did not hear her. "It's five times the size of Gokaioh. Others have come in to help, but everything we've thrown at him, he just heals from it."
A shriek can be heard as he speaks, which the Captain further elaborates. "On top of that, Ahim, the Doc and the ToQgers claim to be pestered by some kind of clown, which only they can see."
A crashing sound is heard through the phone.
"Gai," the Captain says, "Whatever you're doing, do it fast."
The line disconnects. Upon hearing this, Gai starts rushing away.
"Wait a minute, where are you going?" Jasmine stops him.
"My friends are in trouble! I gotta help!"
"Your captain said to do what you must do first, and then come to his aid," Hiromu reminds him.
"He's right," Jasmine agrees. "We better contain what we can, before heading into battle like this."
"Didn't you hear what he said?" Daigo brings up. "This Captain made it sound like this thing is as tall as Dairyujin."
"Two years ago, another monster of about the same size showed up," Megumi says. "And all it took to take that down were the regular citizens of Tokyo. If they can do it, so can our comrades."
"Yeah..." the black-dressed man sighs. "I heard about this monster of yours. Where were all the Sentai when that happened?"
A silence fell over the whole group. A silence which Jasmine interrupted by pressing a few keys on her palmtop.
"I have the plans to this house right here," she says. "Let's go in and check it out."
All six enter the house. Jasmine, holding up her palmtop, navigates her way through. Daigo holds up his hands, as though ready to defend himself if necessary. Gai makes all sorts of faces, as he is uncertain about how to feel about this. The black-dressed man just smiles at the burned remains of the house. Hiromu looks around him, and if he were impressed of scared, he does not show it. Megumi takes a closer look at some of the dust that is found around the place.
Each has their own interest, their own emotion, their own task, but nothing to indicate that there is anything wrong with the place.
Until: "What is that?"
Everyone turns to Jasmine as they heard her ask that.
She is holding her palmtop in front of a door.
"What's wrong?" the black-dressed man asks. "Never seen a door before?"
Jasmine rolls her eyes. "I know what a door is, but according to these plans, it shouldn't be here."
"Maybe it's built in later," Megumi suggests.
"What for?" Jasmine counters. "According to this, there is nothing here. No even another room. So why would they build a door here?"
"Only one way to find out," Hiromu says, and reaches for the door.
"No wait!"
Barely had Jasmine blurted those words out, and the door opens itself.
Behind it, there is a badly lit corridor.
Daigo shrugs. "Looks to me like the house knows we're here."
"No turning back now," the black-dressed man laughs.
Gai groans. "Why must you say such ominous things with such a big smile?"
Holding her palmtop in front of her for light, Jasmine steps through the door, and the others follow.
The corridor looked small upon entering, but as they walk further and further, it looks to be widening. And widening. Almost like the corridor itself is becoming as vast as outer space.
A bright light shines throughout the corridor, and all six of them close their eyes by the surprise.
One at a time, their eyes adjust. They can make out the space they are in.
There is one circular wall, surrounding them. Behind which is a tribune, as if ready to receive an audience.
"It was only a matter of time, I suppose."
The six heroes look at each other. Neither one of them spoke, so whose voice did they just hear.
"Up here," the same high-pitched voice sounds.
All turn to the same direction.
Above the door, through which they had entered, is a balcony. On that balcony are two people.
One is a woman in white dress, with long black hair, whose head is hanging loosely on her body, and whose breathing sounds like there are pieces of metal stuck in her throat, reverberating with every breath.
The other is a pale man, wearing black robes. Bald, with pure white skin. His head has vertical and horizontal lines cut as though in a grid, and with each intersection, a needle is nailed into it.
"Welcome to this arena," the same voice spoke.
To everyone's shock, the voice came from the man. How is that possible? The voice sounded like an excited girl was talking. It came from a man?
Daigo has another question. "Wait, is that English he's speaking?"
"Is he." Gai did not ask this. "I didn't even notice."
"Here," the man explains, "barriers have little meaning. Not of time. Not of space. Not the ones between pain and pleasure. And yes. That includes language barriers."
"Never mind any of that," Jasmin starts. "Who are you? And what do you want?"
"To explore," the man explains. "To see how you people handle the pain of seeing your loved ones suffer, and there being nothing you can do about it."
"You don't know us very well, then," Hiromu shouts. "Do you!"
The pinheaded man smirks. "I have an eternity to find out."
That said, Pinhead raises his hands.
Our six heroes alternate between frowning and shrugging. Is something supposed to happen?
As if this arena can hear their thoughts, answers comes bursting through the wall surrounding them.
On one side, once the smoke cleared from the fallen bricks, three shapes can be seen.
One is a man, seven meters tall, with a square-shaped forehead, black worn-out clothes, with huge bolts in his neck, and with stitches all over his his body.
The second shape, at first glance looks human, but has hair all over his face and hands, has claws and fangs, making him look more like a wolf.
The final one is a man with black slicked back hair, a sharp nose, black suit, and a red-and-black cape.
There, another hole had also been made. From it, three other people have entered.
One of them is a short man, wearing a red-and-green sweater, a brown hat, a glove with razors for claws, and has a horribly burned face. He cackles at the sight of the six heroes.
The second man is taller, wears a blue jumpsuit, a chalk-white mask, and carries a knife in his right hand.
The last one is equally as tall, but broader. Wears tattered clothes, that are caked with mud, covered with leaves, and wears a hockey mask. He is breathing heavily, which makes his shoulders go up and down, and makes the machete he holds in his right hand look all the more threatening.
"Count Zaleska?" Pinhead calls.
The man with the cape nods.
"Creature?"
The stitched up man looks at Pinhead at the sound of his name.
"Lawrence Talbot?"
The Wolf-Man growls at the name.
"Frederick Krueger?"
The red-and-green striped man laughs. "Everyone calls me Freddy."
"Michael Myers?"
The man in the jumpsuit raises his knife.
"And Jason Voorhees?"
The hockey-masked man cocks his head in response.
"Who are these people?" Daigo asks.
"Nothing we can't handle," the black-dressed man smiles.
Jasmine nods. She raises her palmtop. "Everyone ready?"
Gai raises his phone. Megumi stretches out her arms, thus revealing her wrist-devices. Daigo does the same thing. Hiromu and the black-dressed man raise their right hands, revealing their own individual device.
"Ready!" all of them shout.
Megumi crosses her arms, connecting her wrist-devices. "Liveman!"
The black-dressed man presses a button on his device. "Cross Changer!"
Daigo pulls something out of the device on his left wrist. "Heavenly Transform!"
He then inserts it into the device on his other wrist. "Aura Changer!"
"Emergency!" Jasmine shouts, while pressing the top button on her palmtop. "Dekaranger!"
Gai, once again, flips open his phone, inserts a small figurine in it. "Gokai Change!"
He presses a button on his phone.
Hiromu turns a dial on his wrist-device, which causes a voice to sound from the device. "It's Morphin' Time."
With the device having said that, he holds the device in front of his face. "Let's Morphin'!"
Before the six adversaries now stands six different people. All dressed in a protective armor, each bearing their own color and motif.
"Blue Dolphin!" Megumi introduces herself.
"Black Condor!" the black-dressed man follows.
"Shishiranger!" Daigo shouts. "Heavenly Illusion Star, Daigo!"
"Dekayellow!" Jasmine continues.
"Gokaisilver!" Gai exclaims.
"Red Buster!" Hiromu finishes.
Pinhead grunts. He turns to the woman next to him. "You were serious about the people of this country transforming, miss Kayako."
That same eerie breathing is all the answer the woman, Kayako, can give him.
The one called Freddy is the first in the arena to talk. "Do you think we're afraid of you! Just because you're in different suits now?!"
"Personally," the Count speaks, with an odd accent, "I think it should make this fight worthy of Dracula's successor."
The Wolf-Man howls loudly, and runs toward the six heroes.
He jumps, is about to make a quick attack, when something hits him in his side.
Hitting the ground, the Wolf-Man quickly get up again, facing against the one called Gokaisilver.
"Just you and me now," Gokaisilver says.
The one called Myers charges up to Blue Dolphin. The latter sees this, rushes up to him, kicks him in the face, then in his belly, thrusting him backward, where he hits the wall.
"Were we supposed to be afraid of that?"
As if answering her challenge, Myers' upper body rises up, turns his head to Blue Dolphin, then the rest of his body follows.
The Count bares his teeth, charges toward the heroes. But before he realizes it, Red Buster is already rushing toward him. He slashes with his sword, but the Count quickly ducks. Red Buster looks down, and sees the Count, shrinking, while his cape appears to gain a bone structure of its own. In mere seconds, the Count had changed into a bat, and starts flying.
Krueger looks around him, seeing if he can side with one of the others. This is when something hits him in the side, grabs him by the shoulders, and flies up.
"Trying to make this a two-against-one battle?" Black Condor tisks. "I don't think so."
"Let go of me, you featherbrain!" Kreuger slashes at Black Condor's helmet, creating sparks, which disorient him.
The Creature picks up a large boulder, which he throws at the heroes. As a response, Shishiranger gathers some energy, and blasts it at the boulder, pulverizing it.
With all this, There remains only two. The hockey-masked man called Jason, and Dekayellow. Jason slashes at her, but Dekayellow counters his attack with her batton. Thus locking the two in a sword-fight.
The Wolf-Man bares his fangs, raises his claws, and lunges toward Gokaisilver. The latter holds up his trident, which blocks the Wolf-Man's lunge. In this position, he kicks the Wolf-Man in his belly, pushes him away, but the Wolf-Man recovers quickly, and scratches Gokaisilver. While the suit does protect him from actually being scratched, the attack was powerful enough to make Gokaisilver recoil. He swings his trident, which hits the Wolf-Man, who then falls to the ground. With him down, Gokaisilver raises his trident and thrusts it down. The Wolf-Man tries to dodge, but either he was too slow, or Gokaisilver has a bad aim. Either way, the Wolf-Man's neck is now stuck between two blades of the trident.
Blue Dolphin raises her bow, and shoots several arrows at Myers. All of the arrows penetrate, and yet Myers just stands there, like he didn't feel anything. Blue Dolphin holds up three of her fingers, brings them down one at a time, as if counting down. When she reaches "zero", the arrows blow up. Myers falls down, defeated. Blue Dolphin approaches him, just to make sure. But when she is in close enough range, Myers' hand clasps around Blue Dolphin's ankle. He pulls, and she is forced down.
Red Buster shoots at the bat, but the animal is much too fast for him. He puts away his gun, and instead starts his super-speed run. He may be faster, but the Count changes back into his human form, raises his fist, and lets Red Buster hit his head against it.
Krueger and Black Condor fall to the ground. As they are, the two are fighting over who gets to break whose fall. Krueger has Black Condor by his throat, while the latter has the former by his collar. They keep pulling, pushing and tugging at each other. Eventually, Krueger grows tired of this tug-of-war. He raises his claw, and thrusts them down. Black Condor, just in time, manages to grab hold of Krueger's wrist, and forces his claw down into Krueger's own belly.
Shishiranger throws a disc at the Creature, who doesn't dodge it, but when it hits him, he does not look like he felt it. Instead, Shishiranger tries a different approach. He waves his hand, stretches them out, and around the Creature, all sorts of images start to flash. He sees people, carrying torches and pitchforks, all with angry eyes, and even more terrifying faces, which distracts him enough, so Shishiranger can kick the Creature down.
Soon enough, Dekayellow realizes that she will not win a sword-fight with Jason. She waits for him to swing at her, and mere millimeters away for the machete to hit her, and she disappears in front of him. Jason cocks his head. What did she just do? Before he can think of an answer, he feels something hurting his back. After several groans of pain, he turns around. Dekayellow is behind him. Rage building up in him, he thrusts his machete forward. Again, she disappears. Knowing that she might try this same thing again, he turns around instead. And sure enough, there is Dekayellow. She disappears again, only to reappear... but noticing Jason is gone. The words for the question "where did he go" had formed in her mind, just when she feels something grabbing her throat from behind. Either Jason anticipated her move very minutely, or he also mastered the art of teleportation.
As all the fights are going on, Pinhead looks on to the battlefield.
"Tedius," he says, the excitement audibly gone. "Let us make this more interesting."
With one stretch of his arms, Pinhead allows for chains to appear out of thin air.
These chains grab a hold of each of the fighters individually, and pulls them away from each other.
"It is time for someone new to enter into the mix," Pinhead says.
On the opposite side of the arena, another door opens.
A bright light from beyond the door creates a silhouette of the person standing on the very threshold.
The general outline looks like that of a schoolgirl. One with braided hair, of short stature, and carrying a tube under her arm.
"Who are you?" Dekayellow calls to her. "It's not safe here, get out!"
With one swift move, the girl opens up the tube, after which she reaches inside it.
Much to everyone's surprise, whatever she pulls out sounds metallic, like she's pulling a sword out of its sheath.
The light reflects off her sword, which she holds with both of her hands. She drops her tube, holds her sword aloft, and dashes toward the twelve fighters.